Georgia on my mind

Russia invades Georgia, while Bush sits back enjoying the Olymlpics. Will history remember Bush as the "vacation president?"

And what about his relationship with Putin? I guess Bush didn't see this when he looked deeply into Putin's eyes.

And the timing on Putin's part is excellent. The U.S. military is strapped with two wars while the administration pounds the war drum about Iran. Our economy is in shambles. And our lame Congress just went out for its August recess.

And ... the world's attention is on the Olympics this week, so it's a perfect time for an invasion!

So how did the administration respond?

Well, as mentioned above, Bush thought it more important to watch beach volleyball. Condi Rice couldn't be bothered actually GOING to Russia to complain. The New York Times reports:

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice sent a mid-level State Department official, Matt Bryza, to the region to back up mediation efforts which are being led by Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner of France. [...]

Democratic critics of the Bush administration criticized the administration’s moves so far as weak. Richard C. Holbrooke, the former United States ambassador to the United Nations, noted that President Nicolas Sarkozy of France was leading the efforts to mediate.

Ms. Rice, Mr. Holbrooke said, should be on a plane to Moscow, particularly given the administration’s close ties to Georgia, and its encouragement of that country’s efforts to join NATO.

“Their idea of an envoy is Matt Bryza, who is not an envoy at all since he doesn’t have the international standing,” Mr. Holbrooke said. “What administration in history would not have sent somebody to Moscow immediately? Why are we not in their face?”

Thank goodness France is taking this seriously.

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Christopher Hitchens: "Believe Me, It's Torture"

Let me say upfront that I'm not a Christopher Hitchens fan, but I do want to give him the credit due for putting himself through this. I couldn't have done it.

How does it feel to be "aggressively interrogated"? Christopher Hitchens found out for himself, submitting to a brutal waterboarding session in an effort to understand the human cost of America's use of harsh tactics at Guantánamo and elsewhere. VF.com has the footage. For more on this visit "Believe Me, It's Torture," in the August 2008 issue of Vanity Fair.

Soldier Suicides at Record Level

Washington Post staff writer Dana Priest reports:

Lt. Elizabeth Whiteside, a psychiatric outpatient at Walter Reed Army Medical Center who was waiting for the Army to decide whether to court-martial her for endangering another soldier and turning a gun on herself last year in Iraq, attempted to kill herself Monday evening. In so doing, the 25-year-old Army reservist joined a record number of soldiers who have committed or tried to commit suicide after serving in Iraq or Afghanistan.

"I'm very disappointed with the Army," Whiteside wrote in a note before swallowing dozens of antidepressants and other pills. "Hopefully this will help other soldiers." She was taken to the emergency room early Tuesday. Whiteside, who is now in stable physical condition, learned yesterday that the charges against her had been dismissed.

Whiteside's personal tragedy is part of an alarming phenomenon in the Army's ranks: Suicides among active-duty soldiers in 2007 reached their highest level since the Army began keeping such records in 1980, according to a draft internal study obtained by The Washington Post. Last year, 121 soldiers took their own lives, nearly 20 percent more than in 2006.

At the same time, the number of attempted suicides or self-inflicted injuries in the Army has jumped sixfold since the Iraq war began. Last year, about 2,100 soldiers injured themselves or attempted suicide, compared with about 350 in 2002, according to the U.S. Army Medical Command Suicide Prevention Action Plan. [...]

The conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan have placed severe stress on the Army, caused in part by repeated and lengthened deployments. Historically, suicide rates tend to decrease when soldiers are in conflicts overseas, but that trend has reversed in recent years. From a suicide rate of 9.8 per 100,000 active-duty soldiers in 2001 -- the lowest rate on record -- the Army reached an all-time high of 17.5 suicides per 100,000 active-duty soldiers in 2006.

The stress that Bush has placed on these soldiers is criminal. If anyone should face charges is should be him. When this incident occured, Whiteside at first faced a possible sentence of life in prison if found guilty of the charges against her.

Whiteside's two immediate commanders brought charges against her, but Maj. Gen. Eric B. Schoomaker, the only physician in her chain of command and then the commander of Walter Reed, recommended that the charges be dropped, citing her "demonstrably severe depression" and "7 years of credible and honorable service."

The case hinged in part on whether her mental illness prompted her actions, as Walter Reed psychiatrists testified last month, or whether it was "an excuse" for her actions, as her company commander wrote when he proffered the original charges in April. Those charges included assault on a superior commissioned officer, aggravated assault, kidnapping, reckless endangerment, wrongful discharge of a firearm, communication of a threat and two attempts of intentional self-injury without intent to avoid service.

An Army hearing officer cited "Army values" and the need to do "what is right, legally and morally" when he recommended last month that Whiteside not face court-martial or other administration punishment, but that she be discharged and receive the medical benefits "she will desperately need for the remainder of her life." Whiteside decided to speak publicly about her case only after a soldier she had befriended at the hospital's psychiatric ward hanged herself after she was discharged without benefits.

Justice for these soldiers will only come the day George W. Bush is charged and sentenced for the war crimes he and his administration have committed in this war based on a lie.

In Her Own Words
Listen as Army 1st Lt. Elizabeth Whiteside shares her story.

Why is this soldier dead?

Mystery surrounds the death of Specialist Ciara Durkin, and Massachusetts Senators Kennedy and Kerry have asked for a full investigation.

Durkin, a 30-year-old lesbian service member with the Massachusetts Army National Guard, was found dead from a gunshot wound to the head on September 27. During her last visit home Durkin told her family to press for answers if anything happened to her while she was deployed in Afghanistan.

"She did say to us that she had concerns about things she was seeing when she was over there," Ciara Durkin's sister, Fiona Canavan, said in an interview with WGBH-TV. "She told us if anything happened to her, that we were to investigate it."

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Quincy soldier buried with military honors
Oct 6, 2007 NECN - New England News
"A funeral with military honors was held Saturday morning for Army Specialist Ciara Durkin. Durkin, o..."
Play this video 2 minutes

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Listen to story (Real Audio)

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Durkin’s sister, Fiona Canavan, told the Boston Globe that, while evidence does not clearly point to a hate crime, the family has no evidence to the contrary, either. "Ciara was a lesbian, and that's bound to come out," Canavan said. "It is possible that someone over there found that out, and, you know, maybe they were very homophobic."

So what happened to Ciara? Was she the victim of a hate crime? Did she see things from her post in Afghanistan that others clearly didn't want to get out? Why is this terrific young soldier dead? I'd really like to know.

Commander Guy

Eugene Robinson has an excellent op-ed in the Washington Post on Bush. He begins by asking the most obvious question:

Is George W. Bush even trying to make sense anymore?

At a recent appearance, Bush gave himself yet another nickname. He asked rhetorically whether "the Congress or the commanders" should decide how many U.S. troops are needed in Iraq. He then added:

"And as you know," he went on, "my position is clear -- I'm the Commander Guy."

Which then leads to the next obvious question:

If he's now the Commander Guy, does that mean I have to stop calling him The Decider? Or does he spend some days deciding and other days commanding?

Everyone really should read the entire op-ed to get a sense of just how unhinged the Commander Guy really is. Sort of a flash back to Nixon talking to the paintings on the White House walls.

At a high school in Ohio, Bush shared a story about how a rug was selected for the Oval Office. He delegated the task to wife Laura, with the caveat that:

"I want it to say something -- the president has got to be a strategic thinker and I said to her, make sure the rug says 'optimistic person comes to work.' Because you can't make decisions unless you're optimistic that the decisions you make will lead to a better tomorrow." The result, he said, is "this fantastic rug that looks like the sun. And it just sets the tone for the Oval Office."

While discussing the situation in Iraq, Bush told the Tipp City audience that "I happen to think there will be an additional dividend when we succeed -- remember the rug?"

Does that make the rug an Assistant Decider?

With an ever-changing reason for going to war and for sending additional troops it seems time for Congress to step up to the plate and take control of this situation. Republicans need to find the will to over ride any presidential veto that would prevent a funding bill from including a time table for withdrawal from Iraq.

After all, it's want the people asked them to do last November.

Bush Veto = Lives in the Balance

Bush to Congress: "I'll compromise, as long as we do it my way"

As a general rule when someone says they are willing to talk out differences it implies they might be willing to compromise. Not so with the Commander in Chief!

The WaPo reports:

In a somber statement on the South Lawn of the White House before leaving on a trip to New York, Bush said he was willing to meet with Democratic leaders "as many times as it takes to resolve our differences," but he signaled no intention to compromise with them on the funding bill for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Democrats simply need to hang tough on this. The American people are with them. Everyone can see through the lies told by Bush and Cheney -- especially Cheney. Every time they are given an opportunity to voice their opinion, the public has denounced the administration's policy in Iraq.

Vice President Cheney and Democratic leaders traded barbs over the $124 billion emergency war-funding bill, a day after Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) described Cheney as the Bush administration's "chief attack dog" against the Democrats' plan to end the war in Iraq. Reid said yesterday that Cheney lacks credibility and has offered "wildly irresponsible and inaccurate attacks on us and our strategy."

Cheney has NO credibility, and Bush can threaten veto all he wants. If he does veto the bill, and the Republicans refuse to override his veto, it will seal the deal for Democrats in 2008. Any "thinking" Republican must surely know this.

In Memoriam - Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
1922-2007

from boing boing:

Vonnegut on "Shock and Awe"

Kurt Vonnegut's stirring address at Mark Twain house in Connecticut is a wry, sharp indictment of war and the Bush presidency.

I note that construction has stopped of a Mark Twain Museum here in Hartford -- behind the carriage house of the Mark Twain House at 351 Farmington Avenue.

Work persons have been sent home from that site because American "conservatives," as they call themselves, on Wall Street and at the head of so many of our corporations, have stolen a major fraction of our private savings, have ruined investors and employees by means of fraud and outright piracy.

Shock and awe.

And now, having installed themselves as our federal government, or taken control of it from outside, they have squandered our public treasury and then some. They have created a public debt of such appalling magnitude that our descendants, for whom we had such high hopes, will come into this world as poor as church mice.

Shock and awe.

What are the conservatives doing with all the money and power that used to belong to all of us? They are telling us to be absolutely terrified, and to run around in circles like chickens with their heads cut off. But they will save us. They are making us take off our shoes at airports. Can anybody here think of a more hilarious practical joke than that one?

Smile, America. You're on Candid Camera.

Why I like Rachel Maddow

Lead, follow, or get out of the way

Faces of the Fallen

These four men were chosen for two reasons, they are from my area -- and none of them had voting representation in Congress ... oh, and one more reason ... all of them are dead.

By State or Territory / District of Columbia

Spec. Darryl T. Dent
21 years old
Washington, District of Columbia, U.S.
Died: August 26, 2003 in Operation Iraqi Freedom.



Lt. Col. Paul W. Kimbrough
44 years old
Washington, District of Columbia, U.S.
Died: October 3, 2003 in Operation Enduring Freedom.

Lance Cpl. Gregory E. MacDonald
29 years old
Washington, District of Columbia, U.S.
Died: June 25, 2003 in Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Maj. Kevin M. Shea
38 years old
Washington, District of Columbia, U.S.
Died: September 14, 2004 in Operation Iraqi Freedom.

It's important that we keep faces attached to this terrible war, if only to remind us that we must continue to do all we can to stop it. These men didn't have voting representation in Congress ... so if you do, call them immediately and tell them you want this war stopped. Do it for Darryl and Paul and Gregory and Kevin ... and all the men and women from your area who have been lost because of our idiot president.

Messge for Speaker Pelosi ...

Remember who brought you to the dance! The only reason Democrats are in control of the House and Senate is because a majority of Americans disapprove of the way Bush & Co. have handled Iraq. And those numbers are only getting larger.

Unlike Bush, in his statements following the 2004 election, you truly DO have a mandate! And the American people expect you to use it!

CommonDreams.org reports:

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is facing a full-blown revolt from liberal House Democrats over the $98 billion Iraq supplemental bill, according to Democratic insiders. Anywhere between 50 to 75 Democrats are now threatening to vote against the bill because it doesn't go far enough toward ending the war, including setting a date certain for withdrawal of U.S. combat forces from Iraq, said the sources. Pelosi and Democratic leaders are expected to postpone markup of the Iraq bill in the House Appropriations Committee by at least a week in order to buy time to resolve the matter.

Trying to build a relationship with Congressional Republicans is not worth the loss of even one more life in a war that was a mistake from the start. Yes, the Republicans pushed you around when they ran the show, and yes you promised to do things differently when Democrats were in charge -- but this is not the time to play nice. People's lives are at stake.

What's more important -- one US soldier's life, or whether or not a few Republicans get their feelings hurt?

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